Why?-An Anakin and Analise side-story
by KaitiJo
Summary: SW AU: Side story to my Anakin and Analise series. When news of a tragic event breaks, Ahsoka asks why and the twins must try to explain.


**Disclaimer: Disney owns Star Wars, not me. All the characters and places (except for my OC Analise) belong to them.**

"aaaa"-talking out loud. _"_ _ **aaaa"**_ (bold and italics)-talking through a holo or com.'aaaaa'-inner thoughts. _aaaaa_ -talking through a Bond. **"aaaa"** (bold)-talking in another language **.** _ **("aaa")**_ (bold, italics, and parenthesis)-talking through a holo or com in another language.

 **AN: I still intending on posting the latest chapter for Crossing Battlefields this week, but the news from this morning hit me hard. Another mass shooting, another breaking news headline, and many, many dead.**

 **Writing has always been a way for me to let my feelings flow, to express myself, and to make others smile. With that in mind as I sat down to work on the rewrite of Landing at Point Rain, I realized that it didn't seem right to not write something else. Something that might help.**

 **In the coming days as children learn of the news they might have questions, might want to know why. This is my attempt at what we could tell them, how we could explain why someone did what they did when we might not never know why. So here is this side-story to the Anakin and Analise series set when the twins are seventeen and an event forces them to try and explain something to Ahsoka.**

 **There is a warning on the subject matter as it deals with mass shootings and the emotional aftermath.**

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **Why?**

She had never thought it would happen.

Not here. Not in this galaxy where conflicts seemed so much bigger. Where the crime lords and gangs ran large empires built on illegal activities within a grey umbrella of legality.

Not here. Not when almost every planet had their own massive army, their own overly large police force made up of both sentient beings and droids.

Not here. Not when the jedi were real here, when they actual living and breathing beings instead of just stories.

Not even on Coruscant, where murder was a daily occurrence the farther you moved down into the city depths, did she think that something like this would occur.

But it had...And suddenly some of the dim memories from her time before were rushing back to her in bright colors and dazzling clarity. She had thought that she had long since forgotten the news that would greet her father whenever he was home and turned on of the many all-day, all-night news channels. She had thought she had forgotten the pain and terror she had felt seeing the headlines and the way the safety she had felt broke a little more each time. She had thought she had forgotten the way her first Da would block the TV, keep off the internet until the headlines weren't so loud and he had taken the time to properly think about how he would explain the actions of one person or a few.

She hadn't thought it would happen, but it had. Here on Coruscant and not in the Under City. The holonet was awash with images, noises of what had happened at a concert hall. Beings from all over the galaxy gathered together for fun, for a festival celebrating traditional music from all corners.

They had been there. Just the day before in fact. Da and Obi-Wan and Uncle Plo had taken them there for a treat because she loved music. It was only the one day. With all their classes, the exams that were coming to mark their becoming Senior Padawans, there wasn't much time for her and Anakin to have fun.

 _Ana?_ Anakin brushed against their Bond. He was worried. Analise had gone paler than normal, her body stiff and eyes wide as she stared blankly at the flashing viewscreen. It was as if the news had drained the life from her.

 _I thought...I thought it wouldn't happen...Not something like this..._

 _Like what?_

 _A mass shooting..._ She waved a hand towards the screen. _This news brought back memories of Earth...Vague memories I had thought forgotten._ Anakin frowned when she rubbed her head. What few memories Analise had of her time on that planet so very far away were dim and she rarely mentioned it. She had found her true home here, her true family. She was happy. The few times she tried to think about Earth, to remember more than just shadows of the past she suffered painful headaches. _They happened often in the country where I live it seemed like. Afterwards there would be blame, finger-pointing, sadness, mourning, a long trial if the shooter was caught alive. Most of the time they weren't. They would be debates for gun control, against gun control and in the end nothing would happen because no one could agree..._

 _Stop remembering!_ Anakin reached out and began to pour warmth over the Bond to chase away the headache and push out the dark memories. _It's rare for these types of things to happen at least here on Coruscant with the Order being here and all. That doesn't mean they don't happen, just that they don't happen too often._ He thought back, trying to remember the last time such a shooting had happened. It was hard. Most attacks in the same vein were often the result of conflict; wars or dueling criminal bosses.

But nothing like this...He couldn't remember when a being had simply shot other beings for what was possible no reason at all.

As a Jedi it burned him to the core.

"Why?" The voice that piped up was young and still filled with innocence. The twins turned, suddenly remembering that they were not alone in Qui-Gon and Analise's quarters. Perched on the couch, her head tilted and staring at the screen in awe was their baby sister Ahsoka. She was eleven now and happily counting down the days until she was old enough to be a Padawan.

She didn't look very much like a Jedi youngling. Her eyes eyes were almost frightened as she watched footage of the senseless violence; the beings dropping to the ground or running in pure terror the wounded being carried out on stretchers or in arms. The blood looked very bright to her young eyes.

"Why?" she asked again. "Why did he hurt them all?"

Anakin pulled her into his arms, his grip hard enough to bruise. Ahsoka didn't complain though. This wasn't the time.

Analise curled into Anakin's side, clinging to him just as tightly as Ahsoka was. Her headache was almost gone, the memories fading and fading. "We don't know why Soka." She stroked her sister's lekku with one hand. "We might not know for a while or if ever." The news reports said that the man had shot himself rather than be captured. "He could have been mad about something and decided to take that anger out on others or he could have been sick." The Togruta stared at her sister. "Sometimes when beings' brains aren't very well, they will sometimes act out. Sometimes they will hurt themselves and others."

"But why? Why didn't anyone know? Didn't he tell someone?"

"Probably not Soka..." Anakin nuzzled her, looking for the right words. "Sometimes when beings do something like this they might leave a note or drop hints before they do it, but most of the time there is no warning." He nodded to the news where a relative of the man was near tears and crying out that they just couldn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it. They just didn't know how or why their relative had done this.

"So...What do we do now?"

"We pray and we forgive the man because that is what the Force wants us to do. We pray for him, his family, the victims, and their families." Analise's eyes seemed to glow a little bit. "We find ways to help and we don't live scared."

"Ana's right Soka. We will mourn with the rest of the city for the lives lost and we refuse to give into fear." Already Analise had grabbed a datapad with net hook-up, scanning through local events.

"There's food festival in a couple weeks that they already announced will be happening. I know Dex was going. Let's go help him."

"But what if a bad man comes to shoot at us?" Anakin hugged her tightly.

"We won't think about that. We can't let what happen turn us into captives of fear Ahsoka."

"Besides we are family and there is nothing that can get us when we are together."

Ahsoka snuggled close to her siblings. She was still scared. She still didn't understand. They knew that. They knew that they might be nightmares, that there might be confusion.

Slowly though Ahsoka would forget her fear and confusion. The nightmares would fade.

The tragic event would always be a shadow. Would linger for days, months, years. It would never be forgotten.

But together, they and the other people of Coruscant could rise above it and maybe create a better future.

A peaceful future for not just themselves, but the entire galaxy.

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **AN: I hope this story wasn't too offensive or poorly written or dark.**

 **I will continue to work on the next chapter of Crossing Battlefields. Look for it to be posted either late this week or early next week.**


End file.
